{this moment}

{inspiration: SouleMama}

plans for the weekend

* eat 9,000 blackened marshmallows...and nothing else (oh, buddy, am I going to be sick)

* work on puzzle-book puzzles (because, yes, I am a nerd)

* take the dog to the carwash that has a dog-cleaning station (phew, she stinks!)

* read and write (no arithmetic...I don't think)

from the mouth of the babe

Testament to my cooking prowess:

Last night, I made (as in heated some frozen) garlic bread. I left it in the oven a tad too long and the edges were black. All was okay because, of course, you can just scrape the blackened parts off.

This morning, as I was making myself breakfast, I was putting more bread in the oven* and asked Pic if she wanted another piece. She told me, "Yes, but please scrape off the black part."

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*I had roasted broccoli and cauliflower and a piece of garlic bread.

picture pages

I am having a somewhat difficult time around the pond these days. I don't know why, but I just can't seem to get around to posting in a fashion that doesn't seem to jerk along -- start and stop, start and stop.

It's not as if I've been up to so much lately that I can't manage to take a few moments out and post. It's actually that I have so much stuff to post, so many things saved up (nothing earth-moving, but things I wrote months ago) that I feel like I shouldn't post until I get all that up.

Anyhow, I'm working on it. (Some version of that should be, like, my motto or something: I'm working on it, or, I'll work on it.)

For today: pictures. I missed Wordless Wednesday yesterday, so I'll post my pictures today and (obviously) forego that whole wordless thing.

Some moments from the past couple of weeks:

a bit of lit: a multiplicity of chat

Currently, Cardo and I are very slowly working our way through Women's Letters: America from the Revolutionary War to the Present, edited by Lisa Grunwald and Stephen J. Adler.

We're still in the Revolutionary War era.

First, why did I never know that small pox was such a big problem during the Revolutionary War? Did I know that at some point and forget it?

Second, I love reading these letters.

There're a couple by Sally Wister, a teen, to her friend Deborah Norris. Sally is writing about the soldiers quartered at her home. In the second of Sally's letter included, she goes on for a bit, detailing both a soldier's and her side of a conversation, before she admits that she can't detail the entire conversation. She says to Debby, as she calls her, "'Tis impossible to write a regular account of our conversation. Be it sufficient to say that we had a multiplicity of chat."

I'm working that last phrase into my lexicon.

There's also included a pretty great letter from Abigail Adams to her eleven-year-old son, John Quincy, in which she goes on and on about how he should live out good morals and make good choices. He was with his father in Europe. The letter is seven not-short paragraphs long. In the seventh paragraph, she tells her son, "But, to quit political subjects. I have been greatly anxious for your safely, having never heard of the frigate since she sailed, till, about a week ago, a New York paper informed, that she was taken and carried into Plymouth. I did not fully credit this report, though it gave me much uneasiness. I yesterday heard that a French vessel was arrived at Portsmouth, which brought news of the safe arrival of the Boston but this wants confirmation. I hope it will not be long before I shall be assured of your safety. You must write me an account of your voyage, of your situations, and of every thing entertaining you can recollect."

a bit of lit...kind of

Quite a while back, a friend wanted to create a kind of online book club. I'm not sure how it ended up; I read the book, but I never posted anything about it. (Wait, that might not be true. It was so long ago, I can't even remember.)

Anyhow, the book was Sense and Sensibility. I read the book and even took notes, but what I remember most about the experience was the following song being stuck in my head continuously throughout my reading:



"Dion & The Belmonts - A Teenager in Love"

middle o' the dark music

"Amanda Shires: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert"

This is what I'm listening to right this very moment.

There is not enough music in my life. There is also not enough sleep. Both of these are within my power to remedy. Working on one now and thinking about the other.